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Wednesday, 31 July 2013

I've done a lot of nail art (for me, at least!) in July because of the OMD! Challenge and I've got quite used to posting every other day. It'll be weird going back to only posting a couple of times a week now, haha!

On to my favourites for this month:

-I really loved Rara's summery beach nails that she did for her holiday, they were totally fab! Lasted really well too!

-I really liked the colours I used for the very last ABC Challenge mani-they were so bright and fun and cheerful!

-I also loved my brightly coloured flower mani for day 14 of the OMD! Challenge

-And I was surprised how much I liked the leopard print I did for day 22-I'm definitely going to do this more often now!

-But the mani I loved most of all this month (and it was a bit of a tough call) were my Monsters University inspired nails because they were really fun and awesome, and I was really proud of myself for getting them to look like they did.

So there you go, another month of nail art gone by in a blink! Bring on August and the start of the Mish Mash challenge =D

Monday, 29 July 2013

Hello lovelies! Rara here again! I'm posting today because Novice is away visiting her friend and doesn't have any internet so you get me instead! I've got a couple of summery designs I did that were pretty quick and easy.First up-Gradients and stars.I wanted to try some gradients on my own this time [Novice-last time I did some for her-here]. Me and Novice went to the park in the sunshine and I took my polishes. I used Avon-Forget-Me-Not Blue, Plum Seduction and Make My Daywith a Rimmel glittery top coat. It was quite difficult to start with as I couldn't get the colours to blend properly, and I'm not sure I managed to get it right on all of my nails. I decided I wanted the colours to alternate so I went from blue to red then red to blue. After that I added some nail stickers that are also from Avon. I was quite pleased with the results and got a few compliments from them too, which is always good!

Next up-a summery dotticure.

Polishes used were both Essie-Mojito Madness and Off The Shoulder. This was just a quick and simple mani-I needed to paint my nails but was just going to bed. I painted each layer in between reading chapters of my book. Super quick, very easy and quite effective!

Saturday, 27 July 2013

Now I know that technically I'm posting this a day early as today's only the 27th but I wanted to do this one more than jewellery. Sadly this will probably be my last OMD! Challenge Mani as I am off to visit a friend next week who doesn't have internet yet so I wanted to end on a good one.
This mani is inspired by my absolute favourite TV show of all time-Red Dwarf. It's probably not something that many people have heard of because even in the UK it's considered pretty cult but I think it's very funny.
I started with a base of Barry M-Black Multiglitter on all my fingers as a background to all my designs. Other polishes I used were: Barry M-Matt White, Navy and Blue Moon, Revlon-Fire, Electric andBlue Lagoon, Rimmel-Azure, Sally Hansen-Going Green and Grass Slipper, plus the Barry M nail art pens in White, Black and Silver.

If you've never seen the show then you probably won't recognise these nails, I'm afraid. I've got some galaxy nails because it takes places entirely in deepest, darkest space, the penguin on my index fingers is a minor character called Mr. Flibble, who is a very evil puppet with hex vision. On my left hand I've got the show's logo, as well as the word 'Smeg Head' which is used throughout the show to replace swearing and on my right I have a 'H' to represent Arnold Rimmer (who is a hologram with a 'H' on his forehead) and on my thumb I've attempted to recreate one of their spaceships-Starbug. Apologies if all of that means nothing to you!

On to the nails:

I really love these-even if they are a little nerdy, haha!
Kinda sad I'm going to miss the end of the OMD! Challenge but I've really enjoyed myself doing it! The new Mish Mash Mani challenge starts next week though (Yay!) so keep an eye out for that instead.

Thursday, 25 July 2013

I actually did these nails right back at the start of July when me and the Mr. went to see Despicable Me 2 but they are inspired by the (awesome) first film. Of course I did some minions, but I didn't want to do a full hand of them, so I also did the 3 little kittens [Adorable GIF alert!] from the book featured in the film which everyone knows represent Agnes, Edith and Margo-Gru's adopted daughters.

After sitting and watching me do my nails for an hour or so, my boyfriend asked me if I would do some minions for him too, which was awesome because I was expecting him to hate how long it took! Of course I obliged and he loved having them on his thumbs for a few days! It also looked really adorable when we held hands ^_^

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Another sunny July day, another OMD! Challenge post-I can't believe we're so far through already! Today it's tutorials and this was the THIRD one I attempted for this after the first two went belly up and SO I'm glad this one worked out!
The tutorial I ended up using was this fabulous ruffle mani by Chalkboard Nails although my colours are very different. I used all Barry M Gellies-Greenberry, Prickly Pear, Mango, Guava, Blue Grape and Plum.

These colours remind me of one of those awful old fashioned crocheted vests from the 70s but in a good way-I like them together! It's not quite as good as the original, I think I need to space my dots out a little more but I still think it looks pretty cool! And because it's not overly complicated it's the perfect design to do when you don't really feel like thinking about anything and just want to veg out in front of bad tele (which is exactly what I did whilst I did them!)

Monday, 22 July 2013

Hello lovelies!
Today's theme is 'Animals' and as I did some half moon animals fairly recently, I decided to do something different for today. Would you believe this is my first leopard print mani? I know that they're well loved throughout the nail art world but I have a confession-I'm not really a leopard print kinda gal! I think I only own one thing that's leopard printy because it's not a pattern I'm drawn to usually. To make it a little more 'me' I did it in greens as opposed to actual leopard colours. Polishes used were: Revlon-Minted (3 coats as the base colour), Rimmel-Jaded Glamour (inner spots) and Camouflage (outer spots). I think this is one of those manis where practice makes perfect because I don't think I've got it quite right yet, although I do like my left thumb. I had to do my right hand twice because the first time just ended up as a blobby mess, oh dear!

I wouldn't say that I'm a complete leopard print convert but I do really like these. They're growing on me, so I'll probably do them again and hope they turn out better!

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Hello lovelies! I'm back with today's OMD! Challenge Mani and we're into the final third of the challenge already-how time flies! Today's prompt is 'stamping' which I have done over a rainbow gradient because I missed gradient day and I love doing them. Also rainbows are awesome so why not? I used LOADS of polishes for it too, here goes *takes big breath*: (This is going red-purple or little finger-thumb on my left hand) Rimmel-Red Obsession, Barry M-Satsuma, Mango, Rimmel-Sunshine, Revlon-Sunshine Sparkle, Barry M-Key Lime, OPI-Don't Mess With OPI, Sally Hansen-Himalayan Blue, Maybelline-Dark Denim, Barry M-Prickly Pear, Plum. I stamped with Revlon-Silver Screen and a random flower stamp from my starter kit from Ebay (the plates are un-named!).

I'm always amazed how little time it can take to do a full stamped mani-I might look into getting some more plates so I can do it more often now I think I've got the hang of it-mostly! I think my best one this time is my right thumb-I love the double stamp on it and they've both turned out pretty well! I'm really loving the bright colours and summery themes in this mani-perfect for the weather-ey?

Friday, 19 July 2013

The other day my boyfriend and I went to see the (AWESOME) new Monsters University film and I had promised him these nails for it. He also asked for his very own Mike and Sully nails too, and of course, I obliged!
Polishes used: Barry M-Key Lime (Mike), Guava (Sully) and Cobalt Blue (University colours). Also starring Matt White for the eyes, and a smidgeon of black mixed with Guava to make Sully's nose. Sully's purple blotches are Maybelline-Mellow Mauve and his eye colour is Avon-On Point Blue. Details were, of course, done with the Barry M nail art pens.

And now for the first time on my blog, but probably not the last, I introduce my boyfriend's thumbs-he even painted the base colours himself!

He was so happy with these, it was kind of adorable. Actually, so was I, they've been making me really happy over the last couple of days. Sadly though, time to bid them farewell as they're all chipped now but they've been awesome while they lasted, and the film was FAB.

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Yesterday I was having a bit of a crappy day so I decided to shut myself away with a film that always makes me happy (WALL-E-I just adore that little robot with the enormous heart!) and do my nails because I always find that helps me stress bust. I chose to do half moons instead of ruffians because I wanted something that would take me a while to do and that I had to concentrate on. I was going to do all owls again, but decided to do a mix of 'night time' creatures instead. I've got a badger, a cat, a fox and an owl, with a cheeky half moon (see what I did there) on my little fingers.
Polishes used: Barry M-Black, Matt White, Lychee, Mango, Mushroom, Rimmel-Midnight Blue, Rose Libertine, Collection-Look At Me! and London Girl-# 70 plus the Barry M nail art pens in Black,White and Silver.
I really need to get myself some of those ring binder re-enforcer sticker things, as I had to freehand on all these half moons and they're all a bit wibbly as a result!

I'm not too sure about the cat's whiskers but it didn't look right without them. Otherwise I really love these nails-they're super fun and more importantly made me feel MUCH better once they were finished-Phew! I'm rather getting into this new mani every couple of days business, oops! Haha.

Sunday, 14 July 2013

Much as I was loving my stars I felt they were a bit too dark and didn't fit with the awesome weather we're having at the moment, so I decided to swap them for something a bit more summery. I took inspiration from my fabulous Rocket Dog shoes and wanted to recreate them on my nails.

Colours used were Revlon-Fire (two coats), Barry M-Matt White and Revlon-Electric (can you tell this is my favourite yellow atm??)

I don't think they look half bad really! I'm wearing the shoes today and just keep comparing my nails to them-they're both so fun and bright and make me happy.

Saturday, 13 July 2013

This is actually two challenges combined into one-the OMD! Challenge for the day and the #HePicksMyPolish challenge that was discussed in the Hobby Polish Bloggers Facebook group. Basically the idea is to get your other half to choose your polishes for you-and he's allowed free reign from your whole collection. I mentioned this in passing to my boyfriend and he was SUPER excited about it-it was really quite adorable. This is actually his second colour choice but the first one went on my toes and I know some people aren't keen on feet pictures so I didn't blog about them. They wouldn't necessarily be colours I would put together but I love them both on their own and think he could have done a lot worse!

Polishes used (picked by himself) were Avon-Midnight Green(one of the new ones Rara bought me for my birthday), Rimmel-Purple Addict and then to add a hint of starry sparkle I added Revlon-Stunning. On my accents I've done the star-sticker technique which worked surprisingly well, even with the dark colours. Two coats of all polishes.

I really do love this technique-it's so simple but it makes some really fun nail art. Loving those sparkles too!!

Thursday, 11 July 2013

Hello lovelies,
I'm back with another one of the OMD! Challenges today!

Today it's stripes so I busted out the striping tape for a simple horizontal-striped mani. I used one of my new birthday polishes from Rara-Avon's On Point Blue which is a gorgeous cornflower blue-this is three coats.

on top of that I added my tape and then Barry M-Gold Foil and Revlon-Silver Screen, alternating the colours on my fingers.

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Hello lovelies, I'm back to blogging again now after an awesome week of fun things! I apologise if I haven't replied to your comments from the past week or so, but I'm getting there eventually-thank you for them all!

As I mentioned it was my BIRTHDAY week last week and so I did some appropriate nail art. For my party evening I wanted to keep it relatively simple so I pulled out my new Dandy Nails-Bory Alice which I bought with a voucher I won in a giveaway. It's a super super pretty duochrome shimmer which changes from blue to purple with a hint of gold in there too. Of course it's nearly impossible to capture properly, but I tried! I also added a couple of birthday-themed accents with Barry M-Gold Foil and Revlon-Silver Screen.

You can kinda see how pretty it is, right? It looked really awesome when it caught the light but I couldn't really get it across well.

Anyhow. For my actual birthday I went to see Hairspray the musical at my local theatre (Hurrah!) and wanted themed nails (of course!). I broke out some of my new YRNails decals on top of some Barry M-Mango and Matt White and Sally Hansen-Brisk Blue. My thumb nails I adorned with some theatre mask comedy/tragedy faces, done with Barry M nail pens over Rimmel-Red Carpet.

These aren't the best as I did them in a bit of a rush so don't judge my sloppy techniques! I did chequerboards using my Barry M nail art pen to represent the shoes Tracy (the lead character wears) throughout the show. The bow is to represent the show's logo and the pointy glasses are worn by one of the characters and are very 60s so I thought they would be fitting.

I didn't get a picture of my 'tragedy' mask on my other thumb because it looked a little special, but I promise it was there! The show was really awesome and I had an amazing birthday!

Anyway, this post has gotten longer than I expected so I'll leave it there, but I'll be back to normal blogging soon!

Way back in April I joined in with a challenge group I found doing the ABC Challenge-where you do a mani that features a polish/brand/technique/nail art design etc in each letter of the alphabet and link them up with everyone elses. I joined smack in the middle of the challenge and I've really enjoyed myself! The ladies taking part are a really wonderful bunch and it's been so much fun getting to know them through their posts and the Facebook group. The challenge has sped by super quickly but I'm glad to say that we have another one in the pipeline-hurrah! (For more details, go here-you will need to message the admins before you can join the group)
I thought I'd do a quick round up of all my posts from the challenge here, now it's all over (boo!):

So there we go! I only missed one week since I started which I don't think is too bad going really. Look out for the new challenge starting at the end of July-it's a bit of a mix of nail art and fun things and should be really cool!

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About Me

Hi, I'm Jenni, and I'm a UK based nail art lover. I've been doing nail art for about two years now and blogging about it since Jan 2013. I like to think I'm a bit less of a Novice than I was at the start but there's always something new to try and more things to learn!To contact me please email nailartnovice@gmail.com or find me on Twitter @NailArtNoviceAlternatively, leave me a comment on my blog, I try to reply to them all!

Disclaimer:

Unless otherwise stated all polishes and products used on this blog have been purchased by me. All content, opinions and photography is my own, unless stated otherwise, where links will be provided to the original content.

To contact me regarding promotion of your products in a review post or giveaway, or if you feel there are any issues or problems with the content of this blog, please email nailartnovice@gmail.com